A FORMER soldier who attacked an off-duty police officer and tried to gouge out his eyes during a pub fight has been jailed.

Kevin Shane Willis punched PC John Smith in the face and bit his forehead and ear, while his friend, Richard Edwards, kicked the officer as he lay on the floor.

Willis's mother, Jeannie, 47, also joined in the violence and attacked Mr Smith's girlfriend, scratching her face and neck, before punching the pub landlady in the face after she went to the rescue of a handicapped man who was caught up in the fracas.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Judge Peter Fox branded the incident at the Golden Lion pub, Sedgefield, County Durham, on November 21 last year, atrocious.

He said: "From Sedgefield to South Bank, up and down the whole of the Tees Valley, decent people are fed up to the back teeth with drunken, loutish violence and they expect these courts to deal properly and appropriately with cases like this."

Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, said trouble flared after 27-year-old Willis went into the pub and demanded a drink after closing time.

The former soldier, who had spent seven years in the Army and had been on tours of duty in Bosnia and Kosovo, became irate and turned to Mr Smith and his girlfriend.

Mr Gaston said: "John Smith stood in front of his girlfriend and Kevin Willis, without warning, punched him in the face and knocked him to the floor."

He went on to further attack him while Edwards, 21, kicked the officer as he lay on the floor. Willis also punched another innocent bystander after he left the pub.

Mr Gaston told the court a cerebral palsy sufferer who was knocked to the ground and kicked during the fight was traumatised by the incident.

Willis, of Meadow Road, Trimdon, County Durham, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and affray, and was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment.

Jeannie Willis, of Swainby Road, Trimdon, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, after she admitted affray.

Her daughter, Tammy Kinaoui, 23, also of Swainby Road, had earlier agreed to be bound over by the court.

Edwards, of Ashbourne Road, Stockton, pleaded guilty to affray and was jailed for four months.